As the lift latches firmly into place upon reaching its destination, the group finds itself in a large, open room whose most striking feature is enormous piston pumps lining the walls, continuously pumping up and down and releasing steam at regular intervals. You can feel the pressure building in the room steadily, though it seems to have just began, as if in response to your arrival.

The other striking feature in the room is the enormous metal monstrosity that occupies it, a strange collection of spire-like protrusions held above the ground by four pump-like legs. Below the twisting, turning spires of metal (which continuously rotate back and forth, grinding against each other as they do so) is an enormous eye-like red light that seems focused entirely on the party. This must be the machine that Bluehand has elected to use to try and stop you.

"I suspect that Mister Tribunus may be less related to our previous encounters than he made it appear. Perhaps the structure is universally hostile, and he merely presented himself as ahead of us in assuming control."

Herein I will post all "official" house rules we will be using in my campaign. Please keep this thread clean of all other posts. You can discuss potential additions or the current stuff in the OOC thread.

Ritual CastingRitual Casting is subject to certain house rules. These rules overwrite any other ritual rules when applicable, all other rules for rituals still apply.

* You can copy ritual spells from ritual books you find or borrow into your own ritual book without cost. You can copy any amount of rituals of any levels over the course of an extended rest. The same rules apply for mastering rituals.
* Casting a ritual from a scroll requires no components. These components are used up in scribing the scroll instead. You still must provide any relevant focus.
* If you possess the ritual caster feat, you have a number of ritual points (RP) equal to your level. You can expend any number of RP to cast a non-Creation ritual with a fixed cost without expending components (you must still provide a focus if applicable). The amount of RP you must spend to cast without components is equal to the ritual's level, but the RP cost is halved (rounded down, minimum 1 RP per ritual) if you are trained in the relevant skill for the ritual. The ritual must not have any sort of variable cost, so rituals such as raise dead are ineligible, as are Creation rituals like unseen servant. You regain all expended RP after taking an extended rest.

Once Sureiya deftly knocks the goblins back into unconsciousness, the party quickly gathers up its healing standard and piles into the western lift, with Sid manning the control panel. After a few moments looking it over and some tinkering, the gnome manages to get it moving upwards.

You ascend for quite some time--passing by several outlets that would no doubt deposit you in various areas of Gordias, but Sid seems determined to get you as far as you can go. And that's when the lift stops--about fifteen minutes later, with a shudder, as it seems to have reached the top of the shaft in which the lift operates. The gates to the lift open, and you find yourselves in a fairly small, square room. The ceiling is only about ten feet high, so Torinn has a difficult time traversing it while mounted. It's roughly thirty feet on each side, and aside from the elevator, the only other obvious method of egress appears to be a ladder that leads upwards. However, the room is surrounded by pipes--in fact, the walls are more pipe than any other structure. Sid begins to eye the pipes, thoughtful. Aside from the service ladder, the only other features in the room are a series of metal cabinets--lockers, if you will. It would appear this is some sort of storage room, perhaps intended to be used by maintenance staff. The ladder leads up a long tube into darkness, at least forty feet up before the dim lighting filling the room fails to illuminate any further. The tube is only just barely large enough for Medium-sized creatures.

"Hmmm..." Sid hums, then turns back to the group, "Well... perhaps a search is in order?"

Sid looks uneasy at the shaman's response, but then turns back to his work and seems satisfied. "All right, that too long enough." Stepping back and motioning towards the control panel, he says, "Time to move on!"

Once the group has gathered onto the lift and begin the final ascent through the shaft apparently designed to fit it perfectly, though lined with metal pipes, gears, and what could be wiring, it dawns upon them that there will surely be battle ahead, and each of them should prepare themselves.

The party reunites in the elevator, which Sid operates once more to send the party on a somewhat shaky ascent further into Gordias. It's only about ten minutes before the room shudders to a stop, and the path before you opens, revealing a large, circular hall about twenty feet in diameter.

Almost immediately before you is another large hatch like the one that barred your way in the hangar. However, there appear to be no threats in the immediate vicinity.